Jacob Dusquene
Doctor Jacob Dusquene USN (born 08 November 1982) is a human with abilities living in New York City. He graduated with full honors from Purdue University in Indiana with a degree in Cultural Anthropology, a Master's Degree in Biological Anthropology, and a Doctorate in Cultural Anthropology from the same school. He was also a commissioned officer in the former United States Navy, working as a translator in Basra, Iraq while he was stationed in the area. A professor of Anthropology at the recently rebuilt New York University, he also works part time for the Gnosis as a consultant in ancient artefacts and their usages. Abilities Nature Elemental Attuned the the forces of nature, Jacob can make plants grow faster than their normal rate, while also stunting growth of those that need to. He can control plants at a whim and can make any seed grow into a full born plant with just the seed. The seed then absorbs water vapor and takes root on any surface trees can take root in, destroying concrete to reach the soil underneath. He is also able to reverse the process, taking even the proudest oak and turning it into an acorn. Obviously, this has its limitations like the fact that turning an acorn into an oak and vice versa can drain him of energy. Low Level Ability: Plant Growth - He is able to speed or stunt the growth of plants at a whim, taking a seed and turning it into a small plant in less than five seconds. Since he only needs the leaves of the plant, all he needs to do is grow them on his palm(as the seed would absorb his life force in exchange for not having to be planted on soil) until he can get the leaf. This is a minor exchange and the life force is returned when Jacob decides to revert the plant into a seed again. However, should a leaf be taken from that plant before it is reverted, he will not get the same amount of life force, for obvious reasons. Plant Eugenics - During his free time, Jacob can mix the genetic properties of two or more plants into one seed, making it handy for him to carry it around. For example, a plant with antibiotic properties mixed aloe vera genes can make an easy to apply disinfectant, while two poisons merged could make a deadlier one. It is limited, however, to three properties put together, however. Mid Level Ability: Plant Manipulation - Plants are attune to him as much as he is attune to them and he can control a tree or plant's branches and vines, twisting the plant itself so that it can be used as a weapon or a shield. This comes in handy with Plant Growth as he can make himself a weapon made of hardened bark, or shoot poisonous thorns at an enemy, depending on which one he has at the ready. If using only one plant, for example, this would not cause Jacob any strain while numerous plants can tire him out in a fight. High Level Ability: Plant Transformation - While not necessarily a transformation, seeds can be used to coat JD's body with poison, or hardened bark for added protection. Thorns are also applicable in this situation. The addition to JD's body taxes it, however, and tires him out quickly. After ten minutes, JD's body will siphon the life force from the plant coating back into his body and rejuvenate him, knocking him out. Master Herbalist Jacob has the ability to turn normal, everyday plants into poultices and herbs fit for everything one can think of. His power makes him attune to plants, quickly synthesizing anything from the most common grasses. Good for wars, broken legs, and great drinks - poisonous or otherwise. The only obvious limitation to his abilities as a healer and a poisoner is the power to heal the w, v, and z-virii. Anything else, however, is easy for him to cure, given enough time to study and figure out the disease. There is also another limitation to his abilities. When compounding herbs, it is not only the herbs that is used up but Jacob's abilities. A simple antibiotic gel, for example, would take at most five minutes to make, however, even a small amount of a cancer cure would tire Jacob out as if he ran a marathon. Heightened Vision The other perk of Jacob's gift, he is able to spot small things from a distance, find a single blade of grass from a distance of 20 metres, and peep on women when he can. Increased Cultural Knowledge Due to the fact that the world has much changed since the shift, Jacob uses his doctorate in Anthropology to connect with people. He also knows several languages, from basic German to !Kung-san from his travels. He also hopes to learn more about alien cultures. Expert Appraiser He can spot a fake antique a mile away, and is good enough to know when an artifact has been changed by the shift. Biological Profile Appearance No one really looks at Jacob. Which is okay. But if one did, perhaps due to an unfortunate stop of the head, he would see a young-enough looking man, 32 years old with sometimes-blond, sometimes-black - depending on the dyes he uses- hair. This man would also have the most impeccable suits, made from fine tailors, possibly to hide his lean, 6'2" figure. He has one tattoo on his shoulder, in a language that not even he could understand, written by some elders during a drunken research trip to Papua New Guinea. On a final note, he wears glasses, unable to relinquish them even after the veil gave him powers of extraordinary sight. Personal Belongings A Luminox Navy Seal watch given to him by his father on his 28th birthday, eyeglasses, a bag of seeds that is always in one of his pockets. Personality Jacob is an academic. He looks at things and events as pieces of an objective puzzle. As an anthropologist, he believes in participant-observation, having participated in many events during his eight year career. Jacob also understands that things happen for a reason, having taken his "change" during the shift and took a few months off to get a grip on his powers. Extremely observant, he figured out the basics a few days after he was able to call on plants from the soil. He is, however, a social person, as his job requires of him, able to reserve judgment on someone until the end. He is also somewhat lazy, giving his students more free time than he should, being late on classwork most of the time. He is also a bit perverted, though this facet he keeps to himself. His ability to see far has given him the ability to spy on the women's dorms from the other side of the building. What started as an unfortunate peeping tom accident has spiraled into inadvertent voyeurism. He is also somewhat sarcastic, unable to tolerate bigotry in his students, which has brought him against the senior faculty of the University. He is also well-read, and is known to despise Shakespeare in its entirety. His teaching style borders on the ultra rational, expecting the best from his students since they found the time to enroll in his subjects. An avid chef, he knows the fundamentals of several cooking styles, some of which have been extinct since the Shift. He also adopts a no-nonsense policy on things that don't make sense, like how society still demands to look good even after a quarter of the world population was killed during the Shift. History Born into a family of researchers, Jacob Dusquene's future was ahead of him. His mother was a grad student, Siobhan O'Malley of Irish lineage, at the NIP, the secretive National Institute of Physics where experimental weapons were tested by the government. His father acted as a liaison between the NIP and the United States Navy. Lt. Commander William Dusquene, a third generation New Orlesian with a degree in Military Physics. Jacob Dusquene was born out of these two brilliant individuals, not surprisingly having the same intelligence they did. He was reared as a navy brat, moving from port to port, but consistently topped his class, whether he was in Singapore, Subic Bay, or even Germany. Gifted with languages, he decided to forego Navy training and applied for Purdue University to get a course in Cultural Anthropology, something his father was disappointed in, but supported him nonetheless. He graduated second in his class, having held a bad mark on his record due to an unfortunate drinking accident in his sophomore year. After graduation, Jacob garnered several research grants studying cultures in numerous places, Africa, Brazil, and even Papua New Guinea where he got himself a nice tattoo after drinking too much of the local alcohol. After finishing his doctorate at age 24, he was offered a tenure track position in his Alma Mater's College of Anthropology. This was quite a prestigious job, but he turned it down, giving his father the gift of seeing his son wear a Navy Uniform as he started an officer-course as a translator in Annapolis. That was a hard time for him, however, as they did not pull any punches for now-Rear Admiral Dusquene's son. Finally, however, after two years, he was commissioned with the rank of Lieutenant, the lowest rank a degree holding officer could have. Within a year he was shipped to parts of the world, and on his birthday, his father, a former United States Navy SEAL, gave him his watch as a token of his gratitude to his son's love. He found out about his powers the day the world was reborn. Having been surrounded by zombies with a terrified group of students inside one of the buildings in the Naval Academy, he quickly realized that he knew how to cure those with superficial wounds and realized that he could even mix anaesthetics to help the surgeons heal the men. These medicines, which he simply found growing wherever there was soil, quickly made him a useful ally in the war against the non-humans. However, it was too little and too late as, soon, the United States Navy, along with his father, mother, and colleagues died. Alone, he wandered around from base to base, trying to find help where he could, finding his way in the end to New York. Here, he worked jobs to keep himself alive, sometimes as a waiter, sometimes as an herbalist. Either way, he never really needed to go out looking for the job, the job was always given to him. Sometimes forced down his throat. On March, 2013, he applied for an opening in the refurbished New York University as a professor of Anthropology. Due to his credentials, he was accepted by the school, though not with the salary that he wanted to have. However, through NYU, he did meet members of the former Grace Foundation who supplied him with all he needed as long has he checked articles of interest to the foundation. He was content with not knowing that these were for as, after all, he was mostly just content with the money given to him. Relationships Allies Cora Revelle.jpg|Coraline Aurore Revelle Danu wiki bio.jpg|Fiona Danu Adeline Reese.jpg|Adeline Reese Trey Hawks Wiki Bio.jpg|Trey Hawks Nerissa.jpg|Nerissa Ilirran Sienna.jpg|Sienna Gallo Cat Rochester.jpg|Cat Rochester Enemies (contact Amelia (Cassandra) or Bronx with help with the above code. Copy/paste more copies of the code from { to } and paste to add more characters. Time Line 25 MARCH, 2013 Jacob arrives in New York City, feeds off trees in Central Park and the New York Botanical Garden. 8 APRIL, 2013 JD finds a job as an assistant in an apothecary, lives in the second floor. 15 AUGUST, 2013 JD applies for, and is accepted by, New York University's Faculty of Anthropology. Starts teaching Pre-Shift Anthropology and Anthropological Methods Post-Shift. 12 FEBRUARY, 2014 JD is recruited as a consultant for the then Grace Foundation, continues employment as the organization changes its name to Gnosis. 21 AUGUST, 2014 Summer Wars JD meets Adeline Reese in a coffee shop, reminisces about the past and the future. 24 AUGUST, 2014 Package arrives for JD, from Gnosis. A large heavy Vase. Initial findings have plant matter from every continent, decomposed at the same time. Around Early 16th Century, BCE. 26 AUGUST, 2014 The Ghost in the Shell Frustrated, JD goes to Rare Relics for answers. Leaves with more or less what he was expecting. He also plants a tree in the middle of the coffee table in the shop as a gift to its proprietor, Fiona Danu. 07 SEPTEMBER, 2014 Not Our Cup of Tea Dr. Jacob Dusquene meets Cora Revelle for the first time, embarassment ensues. 08 SEPTEMBER, 2014 Perfect Blue Late for a class, JD rushes to Berkeley College, just a few hundred meters from New York City, and meets Nerissa Illiran. 09 SEPTEMBER, 2014 Like Roots, Our Paths Unknowingly Crossed At the New York City Public Library, JD meets a witch who teaches him a thing or two about herbs. 12 SEPTEMBER, 2014 A Riddle If You Will Dr. Jacob Dusquene receives a package from Gnosis, signed by Trey Hawks, Director of the organization. To clarify his request, Trey hawks asks him to have lunch with him that afternoon at the Greek restaurant, Niko's. (Continued to X Never Ever Marks The Spot) 12 SEPTEMBER, 2014 Treasure Hunt Later that day, he goes with Director Hawks to finally see the Gnosis HQ. Only to run into the oddest of people. 17 OCTOBER, 2014 Spirited Away JD meets Cat. Cat hates JD. JD hates Cat. 25 OCTOBER, 2014 Blood and Grease Cat invades JD's privacy for lunch. 31 OCTOBER, 2014 Grimoire: The Preface The beginning of the Grimoire Saga, JD is called by the tree he planted in Fiona Danu's shop. He follows and finds Sienna Gallo. 31 OCTOBER, 2014 Grimoire: The Impaler As Sienna wakes from her cold slumber, JD finds himself dragged to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel to meet Vlad II, or Vlad the Impaler. Trivia Category:Humans with Abilities Category:Factionless Category:Characters